George Ferguson has filled the remaining three seats on his cabinet ahead of a meeting tonight.Lib Dems Guy Poultney and Barbara Janke and Conservative Alastair Watson will take up the seats left by Labour, who declined to join Mr Ferguson's cabinet.Mr Poultney is now responsible for housing and planing and Ms Janke will take up health and wellbeing, while Mr Watson's brief will be children and young people.The new appointments mean Mr Ferguson's cabinet now has three Lib Dems, two Conservatives and one Green Party member.It has also been announced that Geoff Gollop will serve as the statutorily-required Deputy Mayor.George Ferguson said: "I am delighted and somewhat relieved to announce a line-up of six highly experienced, skilled and enthusiastic councillors, from three of the four parties on the council."I was, as is well known, hoping for an all party cabinet, but following clarification from the new Labour leader Cllr Helen Holland that their decision cannot be revisited until after the May elections, I have decided to fill the remaining seats."Guy brings an infectious enthusiasm and energy to the area of housing and planning; Alastair a gravitas, business acumen and caring approach to the children and young people brief; and Barbara a wealth of experience to look at health and wellbeing."I am also grateful to Geoff Gollop for agreeing to become my Deputy Mayor, and who will therefore take over should I carelessly go under a First Bus."Alongside the cross-party review groups of councillors looking for compromise ways forward around budget proposals on police and community support officers, capital spending and housing support, and also the new panels of independent expert advisers on areas like the budget and transport, there is a growing mood of Bristol pulling together to draw on a wide range of strengths and opinions to help address our shared challenges."The new members join Lib Dem Simon Cook (culture, sport and capital programmes), Conservative Geoff Gollop (finance and corporate services) and Green Party's Gus Hoyt (environment, communities and equalities).The current members of the cabinet will be routinely reviewed for the first time in May.

17 comments

@Phurr
I'm paraphrasing, but the same thing has been stated over and over in news articles on this site, as well as Ferguson's own site. One of the main criteria for the selection of cabinet members was experience (i.e. he wasn't looking for "fresh blood" or a new direction). Additionally, I believe it was in the story about Green party members joining the cabinet, it was stated that rather than Ferguson selecting the people he wanted directly then asking the party to confirm, he told the various parties how many seats they had been assigned, and the parties themselves put forward their preferred candidates. It stands to reason the parties would put forward their senior counsellors. So, as I've mentioned, we shouldn't be surprised the same familiar names are coming up.

@BristolMark2 - "Janke and co are of course going to accept cabinet positions regardless of their previous opinion of whether there should or shouldn't have been a mayor, to do anything else would be biting off their nose to spite their face."
"Biting off their nose to spite their face" or alternatively "failing to live up to the courage of their convictions"!
Let's hope that those members of the new cabinet that were originally less than enthusiastic about the idea of an elected mayor have all had a sincere change of heart.

Some slightly strange comments here concerning the familiar names that will be part of Ferguson's cabinet - who exactly were you expecting? Of course it's going to be the senior councillors from the various parties, that was Ferguson's whole intent. Likewise, Janke and co are of course going to accept cabinet positions regardless of their previous opinion of whether there should or shouldn't have been a mayor, to do anything else would be biting off their nose to spite their face.

The Post – 26 April 2012 – "Barbara Janke: Why I resigned as Bristol City Council leader"
http://tinyurl.com/7gesvu3
"Earlier this year [2012] she spoke out against the idea of an elected mayor for Bristol, stating that they would be no more than a "professional politician" who could do no better than traditional council leaders."
This statement seems to criticize all three jobs, "an elected mayor for Bristol", "professional politicians" and "traditional council leaders".
How does Cllr Janke reconcile her previously stated opinion with her new position on the Mayor's Cabinet?

same t**ds floating around in the same pond. But with a new shiny face with dazzling red pants to get you all to swallow the same rubbish. Its now officially just a rebrand of the same product. About as independent as a tesco express

Well it would have been worse if he had appointed Labour councillors without being aware that they were having their strings pulled from outside.
Now lets see what Labour's opposition skills are like - or should I say "what their faceless masters are like"?

@Richard, it's all unravelling before our very eyes and you know it.
The rhetoric and the reality are so different, the "best minds in Bristol and thinking outside the box" becomes a PR woman and the same old faces.
But claiming that Gorgeous George had anything with the relocation of Rovers to UWE? Are you disingenuous or a fool? It's in South Glos! So the loss to Bristol of one of its few professional sports teams is a success? Idiot, is a word I rarely use.
As for "Already we have seen BRT focus on change of plan's in more fitting with space and communities;" Where the previous plans using other dimensions?